Almost everyone has had to sleep or recline in an automobile at some time, and most people generally agree that such an experience is uncomfortable and unpleasant in a standard automobile. Typically, even a relatively large automotive back seat is not wide enough to be considered comfortable for sleeping, even for one person. Two people have a considerably more difficult time sleeping comfortably on the back seat of an automobile, and one such person will usually find himself on the automobile floor by the end of the night. Such automobile floors tend to have a large protrusion extending up from the floor along the central axis of the automobile for accommodating the drive shaft of the automobile, making the floor of the automobile an even more uncomfortable place to recline or sleep.
Clearly, an apparatus is needed that would increase the usable surface area in an automobile for supporting a reclining person. Inflatable rafts, mattresses, and cushions of the prior art are not well suited for increasing the usable surface area in such an automobile since they are not generally designed to conform to the floor of an automobile, around the drive shaft hump. Further, such prior art inflatable mattresses, and the like, are not typically adjustable to various sizes of automotive back seat compartments. Non-inflatable prior art devices that could be used between the seats of an automobile to increase the usable surface area of the back seat are ill-suited for this task since they do not easily deflate for convenient storage, say, in the trunk or under a seat. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides further related advantages.